What really stuck out to me the most in the revisited version of Brave New World was the first chapter on over-population. Today, we have more than seven billion people on earth, and Huxley only predicted there to be about two billion people at the very most. While predictions are hard to get to be exact, once they are stated, one can look back on it years later and realize just how true it is.
The larger that the population gets, the more control that will have to be used. As the population continues to increase, more and more people are expecting freedom and personal rights, however if these people don’t get what they want or are told they can’t have something, things can get out-of-hand and cause chaos. In Brave New World, total control is used, and it works. Even though it may seem completely mental at first, it keeps everyone in order. But the idea of having that in the real world is scary and worrying. The fact that in the next fifty years or so, we could have a completely controlled population is unimaginable, but true.
How the government plans to control the population is another thing. In the revisited version of BNW, it was stated that “control through the punishment of undesirable behavior is less effective.” It does not “permanently reduce the victim's tendency to indulge” in undesirable behavior. In this chapter, BNW is compared to the novel 1984 in which people in that society are controlled by punishment and fear of punishment. The threat of punishment is more violent than the actual act of punishment. The government won’t actually go through with the punishment, they just threaten it and that is enough to control the population’s behavior.
On a more common note, as the population grows and becomes more important to control, what also is taken into account in this chapter is the fact that as the population increases, more resources are demanded. The statement that the government “must impose ever greater restrictions upon the activities of its subjects” as the population increases is a scary thought, but if it is analyzed, it is true. People don’t need to be completely controlled, but if there are limited resources, the ones they can obtain have to be restricted to some degree. It is relieving to read “ The United States is not at present an overpopulated country. If, however, the population continues to increase at the present rate, the problem of numbers in relation to available resources might well become troublesome by the beginning of the twenty-first century.” It is the twenty first century and we have more resources than were predicted. It’s nice to know that we won’t be forced to choose a Communist government over a Capitalist government. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but a Capitalist government is safer and more efficient than a Communist one.
Therefore, the first chapter really stuck with me and made me think of the world and how the population has increased and how that can have such a huge effect on the world.
